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“So, you haven’t been looking at other buildings in the area?” Lex fired off again, and still, my eyes did not waver from Nell.
“I did,” I admitted. “But…”
“Then what are you planning to do with them?” Nell asked, her voice low and filled with hurt.
I balked, sending up a curse to the universe and to whatever cruel god had put me in this situation.
“I can’t say just yet,” I tried to explain, but Lex cut me off again.
“Why?” She persisted. “Because it’s true, perhaps. You’re going to kick us out of our homes, kick the entire building out of their homes, people that we have grown to love, people that need that housing, and all for what? Your profits?”
I took a step toward Nell, holding my hand out to Nell in a plea for her to listen to me.
“Nell, please.”
But she was shaking her head. “I think you should go.”
The first of the teenagers began to filter through the door, and Nell turned her attention to them.
She plastered a fake smile on her face, welcoming them and instructing them to take a seat. The kids threw hasty, curious glances our way but did as instructed, and Nell turned her gaze back to me.
“Blake,” she hissed, her voice just low enough that we wouldn’t be overheard. “If you cannot explain to me what actually is going on, then I have no reason to believe you or to trust you. Which means we have nothing else to offer each other. Now please, go.”
Tears danced along her lower lash line, and as more high schoolers spilled through the door, it wasn’t hard for me to see that she was barely holding it together.
I wouldn’t do this to her, not here. Wouldn’t make her fall apart when I couldn’t offer her an explanation for what I was doing.
With a pit in my stomach, I nodded and half turned toward the door before looking back over my shoulder at her.
“It isn’t true, Nell,” I said softly.
Before she or Lex could respond, I turned and stalked out the door.
Every step I took away from her made me feel like I was going to hurl.
I could feel the fissures forming in my heart as the distance between us increased, and I made a silent vow to myself to find some way around the NDA.
No matter what I did, I would find some way to tell Nell the truth.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
NELL
I lay on my bed,staring blankly up at the ceiling as the early morning light filtered through the window.
I blinked once and then again in an attempt to clear the feeling of sandpaper from my eyes, but it didn’t help.
With a groan, I rolled over onto my side and picked up the remote for the TV from my bedside table.
It had been three days since I had seen Blake, three days since I had read that terrible article, and he hadn’t been able to defend himself, and I also hadn’t spoken to him since then.
In that time, it had been impossible for me to sleep, I had barely been able to eat, and now, I was finding that I could no longer think.
“You’re an idiot,” I said aloud. “You knew that this was all going to end anyway. Why are you so upset that it has?”
But that was the thing.
Sure, Blake and I had started as something fake, but toward the end, it hadn’t actually felt that way.
